that his whole life on earth was sacrificial-a hallowing of the human nature, which he had assumed in the glorifying process by which it was made divine and eternally united with the indwelling essence: by this work, likewise, the redemption of all men, or their deliverance from impending destruction was accomplished, and the salvation of all men rendered possible. Nor do they believe in the doctrine of justification by faith alone, in what is called the orthodox view of that doctrine; but that faith must be conjoined to charity, its living root; and that both must determine to good works, and the shunning of all known evils as sins against God, or that they are spurious and vain. Thus, that regeneration is a progressive work, of which the Lord's glorification was in every particular representative, and that it is effected by repentance and reformation; and is a purification, a renewal of the understanding, the heart and the life: and further, that the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the duties of worship and obedience to the divine commandments are essential means of holiness and salvation, and that all the power, and glory, and praise, and honour, are to be eternally ascribed to the Lord alone. They hold that there is an universal influx from God, of divine heat and light, or love and wisdom, into the souls of men, uniting them with the divine; endowing them with reason and freedom; and imparting to them a constant ability to do the will of God from a pure conscience, but which requires their own co-operating energy. They maintain, that man is in continual association with angels and spirits; that his soul at the hour of death rises immediately in a spiritual body, which during his earthly life was concealed in his material frame, which is the true and only resurrection; and that his eternal

condition depends upon the ruling affection of his life: with respect to such as die in childhood, however, they believe that all without exception are, by the divine mercy, saved. And what is commonly called the last judgment, and the end of the world, they say should be interpreted, as the same events were interpreted at the period of the Lord's first advent, (Acts ii., &c.,) according to "the science of correspondence," as signifying the distinction or termination of the present Christian church, both among Catholics and Protestants of every description; and that the last judgment took place in the spiritual world in 1757, from which era they date the second advent of our Lord and the commencement of a new Christian Church, which includes the good of every name, and is to be continued for ever; which they affirm is signified by "the new heaven, and the new earth," in the apocalypse, and "the New Jerusalem," descending thence "as the tabernacle of God with men;" on which article of their faith they ground their denominational designation as 'the New Jerusalem Church." In church government they are substantially independent with a partial mixture of the synodal and episcopalian forms.

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Swedenborg never intended or even wished to form a sect, but to permeate all churches and sects with the leaven of his doctrine. Some of various denominations have embraced his opinions, who never separated from their religious connexions, among whom have been, and still are, a few of the clergy of the Church of England.

The first introduction of Swedenborgians into Birmingham, was in 1789, when a few persons met to carry on worship according to their principles, in a room in Great Charles-street. In 1791, they erected the chapel in Newhall-street, now occupied by the Baptists, which

was opened the following year, and was "the first ever built in the world to be expressly dedicated to the worship of the One only True and Living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom centres the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Mr. Proud, an eloquent preacher, was invited to be the minister; and being supposed at that time to be somehow connected with the Unitarians, the chapel narrowly escaped destruction in the riots of 1791. The place of worship having been in the hands of an individual who had borne the principal expence of its erection, was mortgaged by him, and after his insolvency, sold to pay his debts. The society then erected another small place contiguous to the former, which was opened in 1794. In 1809, a division took place, when one part remained with Mr. Merideth as their minister, and the other occupied the then vacant chapel in Paradise-street, which last-mentioned division resigned their place in Paradise-street, and rejoined that in Newhall-street. In 1824, the present minister, Mr. Madeley, took the oversight of the congregation, which he re-organized and greatly increased, and through his exertions and influence the present chapel in Summerlane was built and set apart for worship in 1830. Their present number of members is nearly two hundred.

IRVINGITE CHURCH.

NEWHALL-STREET.

INSPIRATION, or the revelation of divine truth to the human mind, by a direct communication from God, to which we owe the sacred scriptures, is a gift so splendid

that it is no matter of surprise it should have been claimed by the ethusiasm of deluded men, or mimicked by the machinations of Satan. Fanatical pretentions of this kind have often made their appearance in the Christian Church. The case of the Montanists in the second century: "The Holy Maid of Kent,” in the time of the English Reformation: Thomas Munzer and others soon after the German Reformation, or The Celestial Prophets," as they were called: "The French Prophets," about the close of the seventeenth century: Baron Swedenborg (in the estimation of most) and Mary Campbell, or "The Maid of Fernicarry," with many others, were all instances of this kind: and to these may be added—Mr. Irving and his followers.

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This gentleman was a minister of the Church of Scotland, and at one period of his life associated in a joint ministry with the late Dr. Chalmers, at Glasgow. About the year 1820, he removed to London, and became the minister of the Scotch Church in Hatton Garden. Tall in stature, of a most extraordinary and commanding, and at times almost terrific, countenance, with a voice of deep sepulchral tone, and uniting with this exterior a magniloquent diction, and a somewhat fanciful style of composition, he soon attracted notice, and rose into the loftiest altitude of popularity, especially among the higher classes. Peers, literati, ministers of state, judges, barristers and others, flocked to the oracle of Hatton Garden, who was the subject of general wonder, criticism, and conversation. In the year 1823, Mr. Irving published Four Orations for Christianity, in which he started as a reformer, and as the haughty and better censurer of the evangelical preachers. He shone for a season as the dazzling and fashionable orator; he then became a zealous Millena

rian; then a prophet; then a credulous believer in Mary Campbell, as the subject of a divine inspiration, and the unknown tongues; and closed his brilliant but eccentric career at Glasgow in 1834, in the forty-third year of his age. That he was a good man none doubt; that in some respects he was a great man many believe; and that he was a deluded man is the opinion of most. His course presents an affecting lesson, and is one of the most impressive warnings which the modern history of the church affords against that mysticism which consists of setting up the impulses of our own mind, instead of the word of God, as the standard of truth and the rule of action.

As far as I have been able to learn the religious sentiments and practices of the congregations which are usually considered as his followers, they are contained generally in the subjoined summary.

They repudiate the idea of considering Mr. Irving as their founder, and refuse to be called by his name, or by any other sectarian name whatever; professing only that they belong to the one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church. They admit, however, that Mr. Irving was raised up by God to revive some truths which the church through a want of faith and neglect of watchfulness, had lost, or at any rate forgotten; such, for instance, as the gift of prophecy and other extraordinary endowments of the Primitive Christian Church. It is a fundamental principle with them that the church is still possessed, potentially, of the powers and gifts spoken of in the twelfth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians. They contend that the boon bestowed upon the church by the ascended Saviour in the various offices spoken of in Ephes. iv. 11,—" And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and

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